It's a very interesting analogy you use there Steve. I prefer to use this kind of analogy, from football. The 46 defense by Buddy Ryan is an attack defense that rushes so many defensive men to the passer that the offensive line is overwhelmed and results in a sack. The flaw in that defensive scheme is that it commits so many men to the pass rush that coverage on receivers are left to one on one coverage and if the pass gets off with a Randy Moss type receiver (tall and fast) it defeats the 46. After offensive coordinators found out this flaw in the 46 most teams opted for the more moderate and safe Cover 2 devised by Tony Dungy. Now Buddy Ryan stuck with this scheme until he was fired as Defensive Coordinator with the Houston Oilers. Like Teddy Ballgame, Ryan is a stubborn and proud man. Like those two men, the Republicans are stubbornly sticking to a scheme that no longer is effective politically. As a matter of fact, it's costing them votes to the point that they have to resort to gerrymandering in order to maintain what little they have left. Now it's not that Obama is such a political genius; he's not. It's just that the Republicans are just that stubborn and stupid.